Chicago Cubs great play shocks the National League East

As most people know by now, the 2022 season has not been great for the Chicago Cubs. They are well under .500 and have been out of the playoff race since May. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t play well to prepare for the 2023 season where things might be looking up.

In addition to that, it is fun to play spoiler for teams across the league. The Cubs did that this week for the New York Mets.

Going into the series, the Mets were doing their best to hang onto the lead in the National League East. It has been a battle lately with the Atlanta Braves who are also one of the best teams in the entire league. The Cubs did the Braves a huge favor by sweeping the New York Mets.

Unfortunately for Atlanta, they lost to the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday so the Cubs only helped them get within 0.5 games of the division lead. Even still, the Cubs shocked the NL East by sweeping those Mets.

The Chicago Cubs did a great job against the New York Mets this week.

Looking at both Atlanta and New York’s schedules, it was obvious that the Chicago Cubs were viewed as a winnable series for the Mets. With Jacob deGrom slated to make the middle game’s start, it felt even better for the Mets but the Cubs found a way to beat him too.

The Mets have to be wondering how they let the Cubs come into their stadium and sweep them out. It hasn’t been as pretty lately for the Mets as it was in the first half of the season but this might be a new low for this first-place squad.

This is amazing news for the Chicago Cubs because it shows that the team is ready to play well against good teams right now. Things have been horrid this season but they are seeing a lot from some key players right now.

2023 could be positively impacted by the team finishing out this year strong. We have learned a lot about some of the players on this team like Seiya Suzuki, Nico Hoerner, and a lot of the pitchers.

You don’t just sweep an elite team like the Mets by accident. You have to play very well in order to do so and the Cubs did that. It is on them to keep building now.

That is it for the Cubs this year against either the Mets or Braves. They can still make their presence known in the NL East, however, as they have three games against the Philadelphia Phillies later this month. The Phillies will still probably be a third-place Wild Card team no matter what but you never know.

The Cubs play the Miami Marlins next week as well but they aren’t going to the playoffs like New York, Atlanta, or Philly. The most important takeaway for the Cubs, however, is not their impact on this other NL division. It is their ability to play well against these great teams right now.

The Cubs are off on Thursday but they will start a weekend series at Wrigley Field against the Colorado Rockies who are just coming from down the road as they had a two-game series with the Chicago White Sox.

These next few weeks are days when the Cubs want to finish strong. This Mets series was a great start. Finishing strong might attract a free agent or two which could make for a much more interesting 2023 season.